Protecting your home from wildfire: things you can do

Following up on the post that I made yesterday on structure protection strategies used by structure firefighters in the wildland-urban interface, I want to share a couple of videos with you on things you can do to protect your home from wildfires. Both of these videos focus on the work of Dr. Jack Cohen, a fire science researcher with the US Forest Service. I would encourage you to go the FirewiseUSA website where there are many resources that you can access to learn how to protect your home from wildfire. There are over 1500 FirewiseUSA sites (or communities), a listing of these sites may be found here or you may look at an interactive map where you my learn about each community, for example you can zoom in on your state and learn about firewise sites in your state.

The first video, just under 20 minutes long, seems to have been done many years ago. In this video you learn about research focusing on how wildfires lead to home ignitions, following up with some tips on what you can do to protect your home. I include this video for an historical perspective on Dr. Cohen's fire science research.


Direct link to video from Public Resource Org


The second video is just over 13 minutes and was done more recently. Dr. Cohen takes you through the danger posed by fire brands to homes and other buildings. He then takes you through an example of a home that has many ignition sources around the house and what the homeowner can do to create a defensible space around a home, finally there is an interview with a homeowner whose house survived a wildfire thanks to creating a defensible space.


Direct link to video from the National Fire Protection Association